Delhi: Commonwealth games medallist among 3 held with 25 kg party drugs

New Delhi: A Commonwealth youth games silver medallist was among three persons arrested for allegedly possessing over 25 kg of party drug 'Meow-Meow' worth Rs 50 crore from New Delhi railway station, police said today.

The drug recovered from the arrested accused had originated from African countries and was brought to Mumbai through shipments, a senior police official said.

The accused had brought it to Delhi from where it was to be sent to UAE, UK, USA, Malaysia and other Middle-East countries, said Sanjeev Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).

The trio Amandeep Singh, 29, Harpreet Singh, 30, and Hanish Sarpal, 36, was arrested on February 15 by a Special Cell team that was tracking their movement based on specific inputs, Yadav said.

"Accused Harpreet Singh is a former international athlete who had won silver medal for India at Commonwealth Youth Games, 2004, held in Australia. He also won bronze medal in SAF Games, 2006, held in Colombo," he said.

The Special Cell sleuths had received a tip off on February 11 that Amandeep along with his associate (Harpreet) would fly to Mumbai to collect the drug mephedrone (Meow Meow) and bring it back to Delhi by train.

Further, the team learnt that the duo will board Dadar-Amritsar train and reach Delhi in the wee hours of February 15. A trap was laid and all the entry and exit points of New Delhi station were covered. Around 6.15 AM, the cops spotted Amandeep and Harpreet near a parking and caught them after a short chase, the officer said.

The third member of the syndicate, Hanish, was arrested on the insistence of accused Amandeep and Harpreet and 650 gms of drug was recovered from his possession, he said.

During interrogation of the accused it emerged that Kailash Rajput, presently residing in Dubai and Kishan, living in Uttar Pradesh, are kingpins of the syndicate, the DCP said.

Kishan has a chain of his associates in Mumbai. Once, the consignment reaches Mumbai, Kishan and Kailash Rajput co-ordinate between their Delhi-Mumbai based agents including Amandeep, Hanish and Harpreet, to fetch the drug consignment and send it to other countries.

Harpreet allegedly around 2006, took part in some national athletic championships, but was debarred from the events as he was detected "positive" in the dope test. He had to quit games as during the trial of Commonwealth Games 2010, he had a permanent injury, said the officer.

"After quitting games, he started a business of property dealing but due to slump in property business in 2013-14 he was lured into drug trafficking through Amandeep," he said.

Police with the help of electronic surveillance and reliable sources learnt that these days Mephedrone is commonly being used among youngsters, especially in "Rave parties" in Mumbai, Delhi and other metro cities of the country.

This dangerous drug is believed to be the "appropriate substitute" of cocaine.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police in July last year had nabbed nine drug traffickers recovering 14 kg of Mephedrone from them.